Hello! It’s me Rosyel Sawali a.k.a. Raincrystal (Rain for short, as online friends and colleagues call me). I’m a mom, daughter, photography enthusiast, and an Internet marketer. I’ve been online for several years now, but have only actively pursued Online Marketing since the middle of 2010. At the moment, I’m working on becoming a financial advisor for Philam Life.

I own another site in addition to this one.. my main blog site I Am Raincrystal. I used to own a text ad exchange site but had to drop it after five years. I write on several other blog sites too. Do check out my other links that are also found on the right hand side of this page.

Here’s a little backgrounder on me…

I graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration. I have work experiences from various fields including bank, fast food chain, bar and restaurants, and deluxe hotels. I have worked hard and have experienced rising through the ranks so to speak. When Mom was retiring from almost 4 decades of teaching way back in 2004, we thought we could put up our own preschool. I wanted to help Mom out so I went back to graduate school to get myself a teaching certificate and eventually passed a national licensure exam for teachers. Little did I know that time that going back to school would be a life-changing experience for me. You see, even when I was doing management work, I have always been fascinated with training and development. When I took up education courses, I felt that something clicked. It’s a bit tough to explain when you haven’t experienced it yourself, but I felt that I found my calling. I didn’t know then if I’d like teaching in a traditional school setting, but I did know that I like to teach and share my knowledge. And I definitely still do. Nowadays I enjoy doing freelance tutorials. I don’t get to teach a whole bunch of children, but I do get to touch the lives of those select few that I teach. I feel that I like that better. It takes teaching and learning on a more personal level.

love spending time with daughter

And now, if you’ve read this far, you must be wondering what I’m doing in Online Marketing. Simply put, I’d like to run my own business with the limited amount of capital I could put up. Plus, I like working from home and working online. I guess years of working for someone else finally caught up with me and I like to be my own boss. Well, the ending to this story is still being written. But I’m definitely looking forward to sharing a success story.

I may work online, but I am a real person. Visit my main blog and leave me a comment or two. I’d love to hear from you. Or you can follow me at all or any of my social networking sites. See you there!

I enjoyed writing and posting lenses on Squidoo. At least that’s true until almost a year ago. I suppose the only thing that is permanent in life is change itself. I just learned that Squidoo will be closing soon. It’s sort of merging with HubPages, another site wherein I have also published some hubs.

Too bad really. Squidoo was a fun site. It has also added to a lot of my knowledge in writing and posting articles online. But I do have my own websites that I should work on more often.

There’s one other thing I would miss on Squidoo aside from the monthly earnings… my awards! Yup, those cute little badges that get added to your profile page when you’ve reached a milestone. They’re so much cuter than the ones on HubPages. To remember them, I made screenshots that I will post here so I would still enjoy looking back…

65 badges in all. Aren’t they awesome? I loved earning them. Now, I’ve signed up to transfer my lenses to HubPages. It’s all wait and see for now. I sure would love to get back to writing. I just have too much going on in my head right now to focus. But I know I will get there soon…

This was the first lens I wrote on Squidoo. Now I’m moving it here on my site.

So How Did I Come To Own My Text Ad Exchange Program?

I don’t get to tell this story very often, but it’s the story of how I started earning online. Sure I’ve been around the Internet for a few years now, but I have not explored the possibility of making money online prior to three years ago. Now I have my self-hosted blog. In addition, I also own/run a text ad exchange program. And this is how it all started…….

A Life-Changing Year

The year 2010 didn’t exactly start out too well for our family. My dad was hospitalized for two and a half weeks before he succumbed to liver cirrhosis. It was totally unexpected. Anyway, it was during my dad’s funeral when a few of my graduate studies classmates went to visit. It was then when I learned about online earning opportunities. Apparently, my friend Jaye knew someone who made a living from writing reviews of restaurants, a food critic. I thought then, “Wow! What a way to earn a living.” But I put the idea on a back burner as we had to sort out a few details after my dad’s funeral. I was silently wallowing in grief for a few months before I finally started a blog hosted on Blogger, Random Thoughts on Rain’s Domain. I honestly didn’t know what I would be writing about, but I’ve always kept a journal, so this site would be more like an online journal. It was fun writing about my state of mind during the first month, but I was still feeling a little down.

It was then than an offer to do a temp job came and I took it so I could somehow have a change of environment. I felt I needed it for my sanity and to improve my state of mind. That time I was beginning to feel a little depressed. It was a dead-end job, but I did enjoy some free computer time. I thought then I would look into the possibility of making money online. There must be more to life than a routine job that required me to travel more than halfway across town. The salary of which wasn’t even more than enough to cover for food and transportation expenses. That was around mid of 2010.

I had to wait a few months to sign-up for Paid-to-Blog programs. Even then, the opportunities were few and limited so I also started with PTCs (Paid to Click sties). These were lower risk sites as one could join for free and earn a few cents here and there from clicking ads. To date, I still have an account with a few reliable sites. I’ve stopped joining PTCs as I’ve seen quite a number have folded up after just a few months. It wasn’t worth the time and effort that one put in. But the few that I’ve retained, I’m happy to have been paid a few times. The earnings are not a lot, but a few here and there do add up.

That was when I discovered traffic exchanges. I found an industry where online marketers exchanged website traffic. I view your site, you view mine. That sounds fair enough. Very much like PTCs, TEs (traffic exchanges) are also free to join. If you’re a free member though, you need to spend more time on the site to earn more credits so your site or sites can be seen by other members. Now looking back, I didn’t realize that I’ve already learned a lot since I started out. But I digress. Anyway, I’ve learned that to be successful online, one need to build a list. And in order to do that one will need marketing tools. Whereas I was reluctant to shell out any amount at the onset, I found that it is necessary in order to build and grow one’s business online. By this time, my temp job was over so I spent a little more time online with just my freelance tutorial on the side.

I’ve joined TEs here and there. I networked with fellow marketers. I asked questions. I tried learning new skills, mostly on how to set up a wordpress blog, make my own splash pages, learn some HTML codes, and so on. Half a year into all these, I’ve joined a video making contest for a TE and won enough for me to invest in my own domain and hosting. That was when I put up my main blog site, I Am Raincrystal, with the help of my mentor Ted Sawyer, TheZenMarketer.com.

Even when I started joining TEs, I came across some sites known as text ad exchanges (TAEs). These were similar to TEs, but some TAEs do not have the surfing sites feature. Instead, you can add text ads, banner ads, button banner ads, featured ads, solo email ads and so on. I actually liked TAEs that when a colleague mentioned that he had one site that he was going to “put to sleep” unless someone wanted to take over it, I gladly took the risk. I was then a few months into my blogging and online promotions and a year into online marketing. I felt that it would be a good chance to be a program owner. The site was Winning Solos Text Ad Exchange. It was a cookie cutter program that one can rent and/or purchase from provider Admin For Free.

This story doesn’t have an ending yet. My site Winning Solos is a work in progress. I have grown the site from a mere twenty members to more than 350. But I’m not going to stop there. My latest campaign is to make it to the Friday Night List, a promo code site that lists only sites with at least 500 members. It may sound a bit ambitious, but I feel that I need a goal to keep pushing on, esp. when at times it just feels easier to quit. Who knows how this story will end. All I know is that I want a happy ending. 😀

I was born and raised in Manila. And when I was little, I remember we lived in Binondo. But then as I entered elementary school we moved to a farther place where I grew up for most of my life. However, we have since gone back to living in Binondo for almost twenty years now. My daughter is born here and has been raised here as well. She is what I will truly call a Binondo girl.

We actually know it’s one of the oldest places, but I never really paid much attention to its historical extent until I did this post. Read on and discover Binondo, Manila — the oldest chinatown in the world. You might get that chance to travel to Manila. If so, I hope that you don’t pass up the chance of visiting Binondo.

The b & w photo above is the original Jones Bridge. It had the caption that read “Bridge of Binondoc in Manila, early 19th century. Original caption: Pont de Binondoc à Manille. From Aventures d’un Gentilhomme Breton aux iles Philippines by Paul de la Gironière, published in 1855.”

Jones Bridge

Seen here is the Jones Bridge. You can reach Binondo via this historical bridge.

Once hailed as Manila’s queen of the bridges, Jones Bridge has since been reconstructed at least twice, once in 1916 by the American Colonial Government and again in 1945, when it was destroyed by the bombs of World War II.

This bridge connects the district of Binondo on Quintin Paredes Street (formerly called Calle Rosario) with the center of Manila. It also connects Intramuros, another historical place, to Binondo. Today, it is one of the busiest streets leading to the district.

Jones Bridge was named after William Atkinson Jones, the principal author of the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916.

If you have seen the movie, The Bourne Legacy, some motorcycle chase scenes were shot at the Jones Bridge. Too bad I didn’t get a chance to watch the filming.

The Arch

As you enter Binondo from Jones Bridge, you will come upon this arch, called the Filipino – Chinese Friendship Arch. It is a recognition of the long-term relations between the early Filipinos and the early Chinese migrants who settled here to do business in the early days.

According to history, Binondo was created as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants who converted to Catholicism by the then Spanish Governor Luis Perez Dasmarinas in 1594. There is a Dasmarinas Street a block from the featured arch. (Now I know where the name came from.)

Binondo is just across the river from the famous walled city of Intramuros, the seat of the old Spanish government. Spanish Dominican priests made Binondo their parish, converting many of the residents to Catholicism. Binondo Church, also known as the Minor Basilica of St. Lorenzo Ruiz — the first Filipino saint, was founded by the Dominican priests in 1596. The church in itself has its fair share of history. (See photo below)

Today, the Filipino – Chinese community has grown tremendously from the old days. Plus, Filipino – Chinese businessmen are considered to be quite prominent and influential in the country’s overall business climate. The Chinese New Year is now also considered as one of the special holiday celebrations in the country.

Plus, Binondo is more bustling as ever with the addition of Ramada Manila Central and the Lucky Chinatown Mall.

This is one of the few books that I have read at least three times at different points in my life. Each time was like I was reading the book for the first time as I’ve learned to appreciate the book and its message from my changing perspectives about life.

One of my favorite sayings comes from the book, “It is only with the heart that one can rightly see. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Although “The Little Prince” looks very much like a children’s book, it is rich in teachings and philosophies about life. I can truly consider the Little Prince as one of my favorite fictional characters. I certainly learned much from him.

The Little Prince and the Fox

I found this great excerpt from the book. Good reading too! 😀

Antoine de Saint-Exupery and The Little Prince were on a 50 French franc bank note. A long time ago I worked overseas in a deluxe hotel and had personally seen this bank note. (Photo credit: By Atacanus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

If you haven’t read “The Little Prince,” do grab your copy today. You are missing a lot in not reading it.

Well, maybe not! But I will miss the earnings for sure. After all, I recently got paid around $9. Yup! That’s from my holiday lenses too. And to think I haven’t really edited much since my last two lenses were locked and then deleted! Arrrghhh! That’s my sentiment aptly shown by the meme above.

Well, I just recently got 19 more lenses locked! OMG! So I just downloaded them first and will need to decide how and where to rewrite them on. It would be great to update them indeed! I would like to believe they’re pretty well written. But heck, when you’re writing on some platform, you’re at their mercy huh? I guess I will need to move them somewhere else where they will be better appreciated. Like perhaps on this blog… since it’s self-hosted. Or maybe have another blogspot or tumblr site dedicated to my locked lenses. LOL! Now that would be extreme!

Hey, I’m just online as I would need the additional income. Freelance tutorial gets to be seasonal at times. Summer months are not too enjoyable as I would need to have income too. Oh well, it’s best to be prepared. My success story is still being written. So until then, keep coming back for more updates on here and my other sites! See you around!